RECORD OF HEXABRANCHUS SANGUINEUS (RUPPELL & LEUCKART, 1828) FROM LAKSHADWEEP ARCHIPELAGO, INDIA

2010·1.1 MB·English

by  Deepak Apte

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
Thiruvananthapuram, for comments on an earlier draft of the references on the species. We are thankful to P.B. Biju,
manuscript. We are grateful to Mr. Peter Smetacek, expert J. Krishnajith and Satheesh, members of Warblers and Waders
Lepidopterist working on Himalayan Lepido-Fauna for survey team for field support and encouragement. We are also
reviewing the final manuscript. Special thanks to Dr. Keith thankful to B.S. Aryameher, first author’s daughter, for her
Wolf (California) who provided us with most of the older constant field support for successful rearing of the larvae.
REFERENCES
Evans, W.H. (1932): The Identification of Indian Butterflies, 2nd ed. Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai. Pp. 464. pi. 32.
Davidson, J., T.R. Bell & E.H. Aitken (1896): The butterflies of the North Canara District of the Bombay Presidency Part I. J. Bombay Nat. Hist.
Soc. 10(1): 237-258.
Wynter-Blyth, M.A. (1957): Butterflies of the Indian Region. Bombay Natural History Society. Pp. 523. pi. 147.
16. RECORD OF HEXABRANCHUS SANGUINEUS (RUPPELL & LEUCKART, 1828)
FROM LAKSHADWEEP ARCHIPELAGO, INDIA
Deepak Apte12 and V.K. Salahuddin1 3
'Bombay Natural History Society, Hombill House, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Road, Mumbai 400 001, Maharashtra. India.
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
Introduction Results and Discussion
Indian opisthobranchs have received attention only in On July 14, 2010, during a night search at low tide on
the recent times with extensive work by Apte and Bhave along the eastern reef of Agatti Island, Lakshadweep Archipelago,
the west coast of India (Apte 2009; Apte etal. 2010). Besides west coast of India, we came across two specimens of
Apte (2009), the only work on the Lakshadweep H. sanguineus (Family Hexabranchidae).
Opisthobranch fauna was by Gardnier (1903) and Rao et cil. The specimen from Lakshadweep shows distinct colour
(1974). Valdes (2002) in his paper on Hexabranchus discussed variation from the specimens found in Andaman. Colour of
taxonomic confusion regarding this genus. Valdes (2002) has the specimens from Lakshadweep is dark cherry red as
provided a comprehensive synonymy for the species. compared to pink coloured individuals from Andaman. Both
H. sanguineus is a widespread species in tropical Indo-west the specimens are illustrated here for comparison (Figs 1 and
Pacific and it shows remarkable colour variation. 2). Gardnier (1903) reported two species of Hexabranchus
Hexabranchus sanguineus commonly called as the (H.faustus and H. digitatus) from Maldives. H.faustus Bergh,
‘Spanish Dancer’, is one of the largest nudibranch growing 1878 (Valdes 2002) and H. digitatus Eliot, 1903 (Thompson
up to 55 cm (Double 1992; Debelius 2004) and an active 1972) are now synonyms of H. sanguineus. Maldives is
swimmer. There are unpublished records of the species located to the south of Lakshadweep Archipelago. Gardnier’s
growing up to 90 cm. expedition to the Maldives and Laccadive Archipelagos in
Fig. 1: Hexabranchus cf sanguineus from Andaman Island Fig. 2: Hexabranchus cf sanguineus from Lakshadweep Island
measuring 13 cm measuring 21 cm
J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 107 (3), Sep-Dec 2010 261
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
1903 was one of the major expeditions to these reefs. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
However, the expedition in Lakshadweep was confined only
to the Minicoy Island, which is the southernmost island of We take this opportunity to acknowledge the financial
the Lakshadweep Archipelago and nearest to Maldives. support provided by MoEF, Gol, under AICOPTAX and
The present sighting is from Agatti Island, which is over administrative support provided by the Department of
300 nautical miles north of Minicoy Island. Environment and Forests, Lakshadweep. We are also
The present find extends the range of H. sanguineus to thankful to LEAD International, Darwin Initiative, for the
the west coast of India. Whitley Fund for Nature and Shears Foundation, who has
Size: 20 cm and 21 cm. Of the two specimens only one supported Project Giant Clam at Lakshadweep. I am also
was collected and stored in 90% ethyl alcohol, after studying thankful to Mr. Thirunaavukarasu S., CCF, Lakshadweep,
the morphological characters. The specimen is deposited in and Dr. Sayed Ali for continued support for Project Giant
the BNHS Collections. Clam.
REFERENCES
Apte, D.A. (2009): Opisthobranch fauna of Lakshadweep Islands, India Gardiner, J.S. (1903): The fauna and geography of the Maldives
with 52 new records to Lakshadweep and 40 new records to India. and Laccadive Archipelagos. Vol. 2, Pp. 1.080. Cambridge
./. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 106(2): 162-175. University Press.
Apte. D.A., V.J. Bhave & D. Parasharya (2010): An annotated Rao, K. V., P. Sivadas & L.K. Kumary (1974): On three rare doridiform
and illustrated checklist of the Opisthobranch fauna of Gulf nudibranch molluscs from Kavaratti Lagoon, Laccadive Islands.
of Kutch, Gujarat, India, with 20 new records for Gujarat and Journal of the Marine Biological Association of India 16(1):
14 new records for India. Part 1. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 107( 1 )\ 113-125.
14-23. Thompson, T.E. (1972): Observations on Hexabranchus on the Australian
Debelius. H. (1996): Nudibranchs and Sea Snails Indo-Pacific Field Great Barrier Reef (Gastropoda: Opisthobranchia). Veliger 15: 1-5.
Guide. IKAN - Unterwasserarchiv, Waldschulstrasse 166, 65933, Valdes, A. (2002): How many species of Hexabranchus
Frankfurt, Germany. 321 pp. (Opisthobranchia: Dorididae) are there? Molluscan Research 22:
Double, T. (1992): Here be Giants. BBC Wildlife 10(5): 34-40. 289-301.
17. AN AMPLIFIED DESCRIPTION OF HITHERTO LITTLE KNOWN THREATENED SPECIES,
PRIMULA GLOMERATA PAX (PRIMULACEAE)
S. Panda1
'Laboratory of Taxonomy and Biosystematics, Post Graduate Department of Botany, Barasat Govt. College, Kolkata 700 124,
West Bengal, India. Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
Introduction very old herbarium specimens (CAL) collected by T. Anderson
During a field study in North Sikkim (September- (no. 830) and King's collector s.n. (acc. nos. 272260, 272261,
October 2007), a species of Primula L. was collected about 272263, 272938) from Dzongri in West Sikkim and described
10 km from Lachung towards Yumthang, at an altitude of about without a line drawing. The present paper embodies an
3,300 m. After critical study, it was identified as amplified description and detailed line drawing based on live
P. glomerata Pax (identified in CAL by matching type material). collections from North Sikkim (S. Panda 30792, CAL &
Pax (1905) described this species based on J. Scully specimens Barasat Govt. College herbarium) in 2007.
(no. 287, CAL) from Nepal Himalaya. The species was repotted The genus Primula L. consisting of about 430 species
from India as P. crispa by Balfer and Smith (1916) based on (Mabberley 2008) is confined to tropical Asia (mostly at high
the collection by Smith (no. 4209. CAL!) from Ningbil in hills), Europe, Africa (Ethiopia) and South America. Among
Sikkim. However, herbarium studies (CAL) revealed that the 430 species, about 106 species (Basak 2001) are reported to
species was first discovered by T. Anderson from Dzongri in occur in India (Himalayas and North-eastern India: Assam,
West Sikkim in 1862 before the description by Pax (1905). Meghalaya, Manipur and Nagaland), mostly in the Eastern
Subsequently, the species was described by Smith and Fletcher Himalayas.
(1944), Gould (1982). Polunin and Stainton (1984), Richards Primula glomerata Pax in Engl. Pflanzenr. 4. 237
(1993), Hu chi-ming and Kelso (1996), and Basak (2001). (Ht. 22). Primulaceae: 92. 1905; W.W. Sm. and Fletcher,
Foremost among others, Richards and Basak revised in detail, Trans. Proc. Bot. Soc. Edinburgh 34(1): 156. 1944; Weibel,
especially Basak (2001) described P. glomerata based on the Candollea 15: 162. 1956; Gould in Hara et al. (ed.), Enum.
262 J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 107 (3), Sep-Dec 2010